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Groton school officials bid farewell to chief, 2 teachers

By Pierre Comtois, Correspondent

Updated:
06/20/2012 06:40:25 AM EDT

GROTON -- It was a time for goodbyes at Tuesday night's meeting of the Groton-Dunstable Regional School Committee as members bid an official farewell to a pair of longtime teachers and the district's departing superintendent.

Retiring teachers included Christine Robinson after 13 years of service and Nicki Rockwell after 14 years.

The latter, in particular, made her mark in the last years of her employment with her involvement in one of the district's most prominent student projects: collecting a million pennies, to help illustrate the extent of the Nazi Holocaust.

The project was part of the Groton-Dunstable Regional Middle School's "Holocaust unit" in which students conducted projects involving the collection of a million objects such as kernels of popcorn, grains of rice, or candy Skittles representing only a portion of the millions of people killed in World War II.

For their project, a number of Rockwell's eighth-graders chose to collect pennies in 2005, vowing to continue no matter how long it took. With starts and stops including a theft of a portion of the pennies collected, and then in a final avalanche of donations, 1.5 million pennies were collected and placed on display in a specially-built Plexiglas container.

The teachers as well as School Superintendent Joseph Mastrocola were recognized by state Rep. Sheila Harrington who appeared at the committee's meeting Tuesday night to present a citation to Mastrocola recognizing his brief but successful tenure as head of schools.

"Joseph Mastrocola has made an impression that no one will soon forget," said Harrington in presenting the citation to the superintendent.

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School Committee member Berta Erickson said working with Mastrocola, who turned around the district's financial situation under difficult economic conditions, was a "learning experience for me."

"Joseph Mastrocola has been the best all-round superintendent that I've seen for a long time," said Erickson.

"I had a very constructive working relationship with him," added James Frey, who served as committee chairman when Mastrocola was hired and during the two years he was superintendent.

Mastrocola's final day on the job will be June 29 after which he reports for work as superintendent in the Peabody school system.

Also Tuesday night, the School Committee was briefed on the actions of the Special Education Parent Advisory Council over the past year and what the organization was planning for next year.

According to SEPAC chairman Gail Glatiotis, in 2012 the organization made improvements and additions to its parent resource area located in the Prescott School building, hosted lectures, and conducted workshops.

2013 will include more of the same as well as more concentration on parent/district communication, recruitment, educational outreach and improved representation of the interests of special needs students.

Next year's most innovative feature will be a "Walk With Me" support group where parents will be invited to walk with SEPAC members along a local stretch of the rail trail to enjoy the outdoors, get to know one another, and discuss issues related to special education in an informal atmosphere.

Tuesday night, School Committee members also:

* Were informed by Erickson that deliberations will begin soon on one of the earliest revenue enhancing ideas to come out of the committee's Think Tank group: Establishing an alumni association.

"I think we're going to be successful," an optimistic Erickson told committee members. "But I think it's going to be a long process."

* Voted to approve two memorandum of agreements with the union representing the district's office staff, granting them a 20-cent per-hour raise retroactive to June 2011, a 0 percent increase in 2012, and a 1 percent increase in both 2013 and 2014.

* Voted to approve a one-year contract with Anthony Bent who will take over from Mastrocola as interim superintendent beginning July 1. Currently an education consultant for the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents, Bent spent 15 years as school superintendent for the town of Shrewsbury and has served in the capacity of interim superintendent in Leominster and Topsfield.

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